The Tale of Mari Gold

A long time ago, there was a small village in a secluded land. One hot summer evening in this village, a little girl was born. This little girl was named Mari Gold. Mari was a sweet girl. She rarely cried. When she did cry, her face glowed, as though her tears were made of sugar water.

Mari made no enemies. All who met her loved her. Though sweet, she was an odd little girl, though no one thought of her this way. She was kind to all but had no best friends. She was honest but a mystery to most. She was the greatest comforter, who never seemed to need comforting.

About three years after her birth, Mari was walking along the river. What she didn’t realize was there was a shadow following her. This shadow was Death.

Death’s favorite way of seducing his victims was to entice them with a golden flame. This flame would captivate the victim as they unknowingly submitted to their death.

This particular afternoon, Death set his eyes upon this wandering little girl. “This should be easy,” he thought to himself. Death placed an orb of glowing fire upon the river. Naturally, this caught Mari’s eye. Mari stopped in her path and stared at the fire. Death waited in anticipation for her to reach for the fire, inevitably fall into the river, and drown. Yet, Mari was smarter than any other three-year-old Death had seen.

Mari reached for the orb, but it was out of her reach. Instead of stretching beyond the land, Mari put her hand in the water. She made waves in the river, drawing the orb to her. Death was shocked. Surely, once she touched his cursed fire, she would still be brought to her death. Undoubtedly, she would be burned and fall into the water, unable to swim to safety.

Calm, as though she had done this a hundred times before, Mari grabbed the ball of glowing fire out of the water. Instead of burning Mari, the ball transformed into a soft ball of orange petals. Mari giggled as the fuzz tickled her hand.

Death was tempted to lay another trap for her right there, but he was too intrigued. Never before had he seen someone evade his threat like this. Still, Death could not let this toddler escape with no remnant of his touch. Out of his long, pale hand, he shot a string of his deadly fire. As this fire approached Mari, it slowed.

Mari turned and saw the fire now floating towards her. Unfrightened, Mari let the fire touch her new ball of petals. As contact was made, the fire turned into a green stem. Mari had turned Death’s threat into a beautiful flower.

As the years went by, Death followed Mari, occasionally seeing if his powers had an effect on her. Every time, her strength prevailed. When she was 8, Mari had climbed a tree. Death shot a spark of fire at a branch above her. Mari saw the beginnings of the flame and reached up to touch them. Rather than the branch falling onto Mari and knocking them both to the ground, golden blossoms fluttered to the ground, accompanied by Mari’s laughter.

When she was 11, Death set about engulfing her home in flames. After all had gone to bed, Death piled wood into the fireplace. He touched the wood with his long finger and the fireplace was soon burning bright. Miraculously, Mari was woken by the crackling of wood. Mari made her way to the fireplace as she noticed it had a familiar glow, unlike that of their fire for cooking or warmth. With an unusual sense of confidence, Mari approached the fire and touched the wood with her little finger, just as Death had done. At her touch, the fire suddenly burst into bright yellow blossoms. Death now realized he would have to think of a way to outsmart this mysterious little girl.

Death waited until Mari was 15 before attacking again. As Mari was plating chicken dinners for her family, Death snuck behind her. Waiting until Mari was preoccupied, Death touched the chicken and laced it with his deadly fire. Death by food poisoning. “This will surpass her observation,” Death was sure.

Mari was just about to put the meal on the table when she noticed something off about the meat. Mari lightly tapped the surface of the meat, producing a few tasteful blossoms as a topping. Perplexed, Death watched to see the results of this potentially fatal meal. He was infuriated when a day had passed and no family members had shown any ill effects.

After taking out his frustrations on other innocent victims for years, Death felt it was again time to capture Mari when she was 18 years old. Death found her walking along a path foraging for berries one spring afternoon. Giddy with anticipation, Death set about his trap. Death couldn’t outwit her, so he had to try to beat her reflexes. Death looked about the forest for something suitable. Death was mollified when he found a snake slithering on the forest floor. Taking it in his cold, clammy hands, Death infused the snake with fiery venom.

Once bitten, Mari certainly wouldn’t be able to stop the venom surging through her veins. Death just had to make sure Mari didn’t notice the snake advancing. Death set the snake on Mari as she was distractedly humming and singing as she swung her basket by her side.

The snake vaulted at Mari. Mari flipped around, grabbing the snake behind the head, its mouth open in mid-action. Death was shocked. How had she managed to beat him again? Mari ran her hand along the snake, drawing out the fiery venom as it assembled into a beautiful, golden flower in her hand. Mari gently let the snake go freely on its way as she tossed the flower into the nearby river. She turned to go on with her way when she noticed a strange shadow.

Stopping to investigate, Mari was sure the creature was not a child or small animal. It looked almost human, but not quite. It certainly was not any animal she had come across before. “Hello? Who’s there?” she called out.

Death stepped out of the trees. His long, dark, billowy cloak covered his unnatural body. What Mari could see was a large hood concealing an even deeper shadow and long, gray, slim fingers. “Hello, Mari,” Death said. Mari was unsure if the creature had spoken with words or if it had conveyed its message through the chills now running through her body.

“Who are you? How do you know my name?” Besides the involuntary chills, Mari looked neither afraid nor panicked. One could hardly tell she was surprised or shocked by her unexpected visitor.

“I am Death. I have been watching you for a while, Mari, but you always seem to evade me.”

“Why are you following me?”

“You caught my attention when you failed to drown in the trap I had laid for you 15 years ago. Never before had I seen someone do what you did, nor have I seen it since. There is something special inside of you, Mari. Something I don’t understand.”

“Are you looking for me to explain it to you?” Mari questioned with a strange sense of confidence.

“No, not unless you can.”

Mari stared back at him. “What do you want from me?”

“I want to know why I can’t defeat you.”

“Surely you have other victims to kill.”

“Yes, yes, but none are so interesting as you.”

“I’m not sure it’s good to be interesting,” Mari admitted.

“Neither am I, yet here you are.”

Death took a pause as he paced around the path for a moment. “I have tried to drown you, crush you with a branch, burn your house down, poison your food, and now kill you with a venomous snake. You always seem to be one step ahead of me. How is that?”

“I'm sure I don’t know.”

“You must know something.”

“Even if I did, why would I tell you?”

“You have proved that you can escape my clutches. You have even saved your family’s lives twice. But there is no evidence that you can protect them without your presence.”

“There is no evidence that I can’t.”

“I thought you were smart enough not to tempt me.”

“If you, Death, as powerful as you are, can’t distinguish what is special about me, what makes you think I can?”

“I can tell that it is something within you. Just as my deadly fire lies within me, so too does your antidote lie within you. Mine is the power of death. Yours, however, does not seem to be the power of life.”

At a standstill, Mari agreed that she would not interfere with his plans, besides protecting her own life, so long as she would not fight him when her time came.

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A few years went by and Mari met a boy. Though now a man, he was still thought of as a boy. Death kept an eye on the two but kept his hands to himself. Mari and the boy eventually had their own little girl. Mari named her Dawn.

The boy could tell there was something different about Mari. Although, he was too self-absorbed to learn what it was. He could tell Mari was special, so he thought he was special, too. With time, this attitude grew only more intense.

As Death kept an eye on Mari and Dawn, he found the boy unbearable. Death had developed a fondness for Mari, and even little Dawn, and felt the boy didn’t deserve them. One day, the boy was on his way back from one of his prestigious trips to somewhere else that nobody bothered to remember. But he never made it back home. It was never decided what happened to the boy, and no one cared enough to investigate. Yet, Mari had a suspicion of who had a hand in the “accident.”

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After Dawn had grown up, gotten married, and had children, Mari was approaching the end of her life. One day, Mari was walking along the river. The same river where she had met Death twice before.

Looking out at the peaceful river, Mari heard a rustling behind her. She looked to her side and noticed Death standing beside her. She smiled, pleased to see her old friend beside her.

They stood in silence for a moment, enjoying the view they couldn’t enjoy during their first two encounters. “You’ve lived a good life,” Death commended.

“It has been a good life.”

“You always were a special one.”

“Did you ever figure out what my ‘power’ is?” Mari asked.

“I have a few ideas.”

After another moment of silence, Death held out his hand and Mari gladly took it. The two glided off together, Mari leaving a trail of her special flowers behind her.

Later that day, Dawn came to the house. When she couldn’t find her mother, she wandered out to Mari’s favorite spot. Where she didn’t find Mari, she found a trail of her mother’s special flowers. She had noticed these flowers growing up. These flowers only ever seemed to come from her mother.

Dawn’s husband came up behind Dawn kneeling on the ground, flowers in her hands. “What are those?” he asked.

“They’re marigolds.”

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Marigolds were seen in the world again. Before they were commonly known flowers, they appeared only at times when one had evaded Death. Though there were many theories as to the meaning of these flowers, the only two that ever truly knew were the friendly pair of Mari Gold and Death.